A presence lunged from behind me. A hand covered my mouth, and something cold and sharp pressed against my neck.
"I'd recommend you don't say a single word if you don't want this to end badly for you."
I felt the skin behind me begin to bubble.
I turned my head slightly. The texture was revolting—like wax melting under invisible flames.
The form of that boy we thought was dead melted away. His facial features dissolved into liquid mass, replaced by someone completely different.
A man.
Tall. Impossibly thin, as if his bones had been stretched. Skin pale as corpse ash. Eyes sunken deep into his skull, surrounded by dark circles that looked like ancient bruises.
And that smile.
Too wide. Too eager. As if he were holding back laughter threatening to explode.
"How nice that everyone accepted my invitation," he whispered against my ear. His voice was soft, almost gentle, but there was something profoundly wrong with it. "Now I'll ask you to enjoy the show that's about to begin."
Goosebumps ran all over my body.
Then Charles's body on the floor began convulsing violently. His skin turned red—not like a blush, but like exposed, bleeding flesh. His face lost all human expression, leaving only empty sockets where eyes had been.
His mouth opened. Impossibly wide. Filled with teeth sharp as needles.
And he spoke with a high-pitched, screeching voice that made every nerve in my body tense.
"I can't believe it! Did you really think I was Charles?!"
He began to laugh. A hysterical, maniacal laugh that bounced off the coliseum walls like broken glass.
"You're an idiot! An idiot! A complete idiot!"
The puppet grabbed Ludwig's corpse by the neck—still pierced by blood spikes—and lifted it like a rag doll.
"No wonder you died!"
From its own grotesque body sprouted a sharp spike of solidified blood. It plunged it into Ludwig's abdomen.
Once.
Squelch
Twice.
Squelch
Three times.
"Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Blood splattered with each stabbing. The sound of tearing flesh filled the air—wet, visceral, real.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Leander stepped back. His normally confident face was now pale as paper.
"It's horrible!" Eryndor gripped his sword so tightly his knuckles turned white.
The puppet twisted its head at an impossible angle—almost 180 degrees—staring directly at them with its empty sockets.
"I'm going to continue for a while longer if you don't mind, okay?!"
Professor Edward didn't hesitate. He began running toward the puppet.
This was no longer an exam.
Leander and Eryndor reacted immediately, following him. As they ran, Edward ripped off his jacket in one motion, revealing metal devices attached to his torso. They began glowing with blue light.
The metal liquefied instantly.
It flowed across his body like living mercury, sliding down his arms until it concentrated on his right forearm. The metal took shape—a long, lethal blade that emerged directly from his flesh.
The puppet threw Ludwig's mutilated corpse aside like garbage and turned toward them.
"More want to play?! How exciting!"
But I could no longer watch that battle. The man behind me adjusted his grip, turning me slightly to face another direction.
"Don't get distracted," he whispered. "Pay attention. This is going to get very entertaining."
I felt the backpack detach from my back.
He had cut it.
I couldn't do anything to grab it. Any slight movement was dangerous.
Crash.
The sound of bottles breaking echoed to the depths of my brain.
The potions.
There would be no way to heal ourselves if we got injured now.
"What was—?"
Sarah, Beth, Aurora, and Darius turned around, startled by the crash.
"Blake!"
Darius's voice cut through the air as soon as he saw the situation I was in.
And without thinking, he began running toward me.
Blood still dripped from the wound in his side, but that wasn't going to stop him.
"Get away from him!" Darius shouted as his dagger began glowing with the characteristic purple radiance of the Arcane Pulse.
Then the blood dripping from his wound mobilized.
As if it had a life of its own.
It slid toward his leg, wrapping around it. Darius stumbled, falling forward. The blood solidified into a stake right on the floor—directly in his fall trajectory.
"How brave," the man behind me murmured. "But also how foolish."
Clang.
An arcane shield appeared around Darius just before he impaled himself. He bounced off the stake, falling to his side.
Sarah. She had saved him.
Aurora didn't waste time. She moved quickly to the side, nocked her bow, and fired.
The arrow crossed the air with a whistle.
The man simply extended his palm.
Thunk.
The arrow pierced through his hand. Completely. The tip protruded from the other side.
But his expression didn't change. Not even a grimace of pain.
"Not bad, eh?" he said with genuine appreciation. "You have good aim."
He yanked the arrow from his hand as if removing a splinter. Blood dripped, but he simply threw it to the floor.
Beth took a step back, her face showing absolute disturbance.
"You... what are you supposed to be?" Her voice trembled. "You look like a human, but you don't act like one at all."
The man tilted his head, considering the question.
"I could be anything. I'll leave it to your interpretation."
"Phenomenon..." Beth swallowed. "And as if that weren't enough, you can also communicate in our language."
"I'm very intelligent, aren't I?"
Beth almost stuttered from fear. "Earlier... that thing you did with the blood, how could you do it? You... you're not wearing a ring, so it... it doesn't make sense."
Her voice broke. She was having a complete existential crisis.
"It seems you have much to learn."
Darius took his dagger with both hands. Rage burned in his eyes.
"Haaa!"
"It's a bad idea, Darius! Don't do it!" Sarah shouted.
"Blake, get out of the way without fear! I swear I'll kill him right now!"
The man laughed.
"Yeah, right! I want to see you try!"
He threw me aside like garbage. My body hit the stone floor with an impact that knocked the air out of me.
The man opened his arms, completely exposed. Waiting for the attack.
Darius ran. The Arcane Pulse in his dagger glowed more intensely than ever.
And just as he was about to strike—
The man simply extended his hand.
He grabbed the dagger by the blade. Effortlessly. The Arcane Pulse vanished instantly.
Then he grabbed him by the neck as if he weighed nothing.
"But look what we have here..."
His eyes fixed on the still-open wound in Darius's side.
And he began inserting his fingers.
"Aghhhhhhhh!"
Darius's scream was heartrending.
I watched everything. With my dagger trembling in my hand.
'Do something, move! — am I really about to freeze up again?!.'
But I only trembled while my friend suffered.
"Let him go." Aurora aimed with a loaded arrow.
The man turned his head. "Huh?"
"He's injured. He can't defend himself. Continuing to do that only shows how despicable you are."
"Do you want to take his place, perhaps? Because if so, I'd gladly—"
He inserted his fingers deeper into the wound.
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
Aurora raised her bow, tensing the arrow. Showing she was willing to shoot.
"Alright, calm down. No need to be so threatening. I understand clearly what path this is all taking..."
He withdrew his fingers from Darius's wound. Covered in fresh blood.
"Though how much you're trembling gives you away. You feel a lot of fear."
He threw Darius to the floor.
And began running toward Aurora. Fast.
She fired. An arcane arrow charged with purple energy.
He cut it in two with one finger. Nullified its magical effect in the process. As if it were paper.
He closed the distance in a second.
Clang.
Sarah appeared, covering her with an arcane shield just in time.
"And now what?!" The man struck the shield in frustration.
I took advantage of the moment. I approached Darius, falling to my knees beside him.
Blood gushed from his wound. Too much blood.
I searched the backpack. All the potions were broken.
I forced my mind to work. I had to think.
I tore a piece of fabric from my own shirt. My hands trembled as I wrapped it around his torso, pressing tight.
An improvised tourniquet. It was all I could do.
I felt disgust and the urge to vomit and run away just from seeing the magnitude of the wound, but I couldn't do nothing like before.
Sarah struck the man with her fist covered in arcane energy. He tried to strike back, but she began creating shields one after another.
"I'm already sick of these damn shields!"
Aurora fired arrows from different angles. He dodged or cut them with ease.
Then he picked up a stone from the ground.
He covered it with blood in a second.
And threw it.
The stone hit Sarah's shield right at the formation point. It got stuck. The shield broke.
The man aimed forward with his blood-stained fingers.
Whoosh.
A shot of solidified blood impacted directly into Sarah's shoulder.
"Aghhh!"
She fell to her knees, trying to get back up. But then the man snapped his fingers.
And Sarah fell on her back. As if something invisible was pressing her against the floor.
"W-why can't I move...? What's happening?"
Aurora took advantage of the distraction to fire multiple arrows.
The man caught them with his hands. Inhuman reflexes. He dropped them to the floor with disdain.
Aurora charged a final arrow with all her energy. "Haaa!"
She fired it.
The man picked up one of the fallen arrows from the ground.
And threw it.
Crack.
It completely destroyed Aurora's arrow and continued its trajectory.
Thunk.
It embedded itself directly in her rib cage.
"Bullseye!"
Aurora fell. She tried to crawl toward her bow that had been thrown far away. When she was inches away, her arm simply stopped advancing.
"I notice it's costing you a lot, isn't it?"
"My... my body weighs too much. What the fuck did you do to me?!"
"See if you can guess..."
Aurora looked at Beth, who was still paralyzed in the same place as always with sword in hand.
"Beth! You have to do something! Don't just stand there!"
The guy turned. "Oh... that's right. I had completely forgotten about you."
Beth, who wouldn't stop trembling. She dropped her sword. Fell to her knees.
"I... won't try to fight you. Just please don't hurt me. I don't want to die."
The man laughed. "Wow. That was too easy."
He looked at Aurora again. "Apparently you don't have any alternatives left, do you?"
He picked up some arrows from the ground and began walking toward Sarah.
Aurora still forced herself to try to reach the bow. Each movement seemed to cost her double.
"The more you try, the heavier your body will become. So it's useless to attempt it."
Behind me, Darius tried to get up. "We have... to stop him..."
I held him back. "What do you think you're doing...? You're badly injured."
"Let me go... Blake..."
The man reached Sarah. Their gazes crossed.
"W-what do you want?! Why are you doing all this to us?!"
"Oh, nothing in particular." He crouched down. "But I must mention something and I hope you don't take it the wrong way... and that is that you don't know how much I detest your shields. They're too counterproductive."
Sarah observed him with an expression of bewilderment and terror mixed together.
"So a doubt arose in me." He took an arrow. "Can your shields directly protect your delicate skin?"
"What...?"
Thunk.
He drove the arrow into her leg.
"Aghhhhhhhh!"
Sarah cried. Tears ran down her face as she screamed.
"What do you think you're doing, you lunatic?!" Aurora shouted. "Is this all you want?! To torture us?!"
The man completely ignored Aurora.
"Wow! Well, it seems your shield isn't so effective after all." He took another arrow. "Should I try the other leg...?"
Sarah shook her head side to side. "Don't do it, please..."
"Here we go!"
"Stop!"
Aurora's shout stopped him. He looked at her.
"Don't continue... please. She's suffering too much."
"You're right..."
His gaze became completely inhuman. Without emotions.
"But there's no point. Since I'm only in charge of finding a target for your arrows. After all, that's what you wanted a while ago, isn't it?"
Aurora's eyes widened when she saw him move the arrow toward Sarah's other leg.
"No!"
Thunk.
"Aghhhhhhhh!"
"Ah, yes! I think it found its target. You can thank me later."
Darius pushed my hand away. He stood up.
"I won't allow this madman to keep torturing us. I'll finish him."
He began running toward the man.
"Don't do it!" I shouted.
Darius approached. The man barely turned. With a smile.
And then I felt it.
A premonition. Strange. Chilling.
I had a vision of him trying to pierce his skin with his dagger, and having as a consequence the same fate as Ludwig earlier.
Trying to touch him would be the same as trying to touch a porcupine. Only more horrifying. And lethal.
It wasn't logic. It wasn't reasoning. It was something deeper. As if my body knew, at a cellular level, that touching that man meant instant death.
I couldn't let it happen. He had already done too much for me.
I ran with all my strength, shoved Darius aside, and we both tumbled across the floor.
"What are you doing?!" Aurora shouted.
"What were you thinking?!" Darius pushed me away. "That was my only chance to kill him!"
"No... if you had done it, you would have died."
"What?! But what are you saying?! How can you be sure of that?!"
"That was too close."
The man laughed.
"I could have died. But I must thank Blake for being there to help me. I knew I could count on you."
"Don't talk nonsense! I know exactly what you had in mind... what you were going to do."
The man only smiled. More widely.
"I think that's enough games. I had my fun. But now it's time to have fun with those fools over there."
He looked toward where Edward, Leander, and Eryndor were fighting against the puppet.
"The best part is about to begin."